Viy

Chant these words.
The name of the hideous demon that lurks in the land.
The hideous demon, whose eyelids droop to the ground.
VIY.
--Inferno Cavern (F-2) Mantra Tablet

A demon that sleeps within the earth. So unwieldy huge that it has trouble moving properly. Its massive eyelid droops closed, so until its familiars help open it up, it cannot see anything.
--Vita version bestiary

Viy is the Guardian of Inferno Cavern. It is a giant so large that Lemeza's battle is mostly with its eye and eyelashes. Winged demons fly in to assist Viy, helping Lemeza access Viy's weak point in the process. Viy indiscriminately attacks the demons, Lemeza, and its own tentacle-lashes with its giant laser. It appears at the bottom of the screen and advances upward during the battle. Lemeza must continuously climb up the platforms in the chamber to stay ahead.

Contents

Enter (D-5) from the Tower of Ruin (D-6). A mechanism in the background will raise a dais to (D-4). Place a weight on the dais in the lower-right corner to open a path to (E-5), then climb up to (D-2) and drop into the lava on the right side. Fall down to the upper-right corner of (D-4) and place a weight on the dais to make Viy's Ankh appear.

From Tower of Ruin (E-4), cross over to the right side of the room and drop down the platforms. Break the lowest wall to your right to enter (F-4). Here there are six blocks with La-Mulanese letters etched on them - you must break two blocks which spell out MU. These are the center-left and upper-right blocks. They must be broken in order, and breaking any other block will cause the panels in the floor to open up, forcing you to leave the area to reset the puzzle. Succeed, and the chest will unlock.

Touching Viy's body, even when flashing after being hit, drains your life VERY quickly. Don't touch it, ever!

Viy's tentacles, if extended, can hit you. They don't hurt too bad, but are likely to knock you into Viy's body.

Viy crawls slowly up at you every so often throughout the battle. This generally happens while it's attacking. The screen scrolls up while it moves, revealing fresh platforms to stand on.

Viy's eye (center of its body) is how it attacks you directly. It needs help opening its eyelid, though. That's what the little pink guys do.

Viy's pink helpers can hurt you if they hit you. Even if they're being knocked off the screen, they'll hurt you. If you're jumping over Viy when they get you, you're likely to fall on his body.

Viy's remaining attacks are performed after its eye is open fully.

Viy can extend its eye up the shaft. Fireballs, blockable by the silver shield, splash outward on both sides of the eye as it extends up. The eye tracks you briefly before firing a laser at you. The laser travels straight to wherever you were when it fired--this laser hurts, too. After firing, the eye retracts and closes its lid.

Viy can also charge up a shot that fills the middle 2/3 or so of the screen. You'll know this is about to happen if the eyelid opens and the eye doesn't extend (you'll see blue energy around the eye itself). Don't be anywhere near the center of the screen when this thing goes off--it'll kill the pink things, Viy's tentacles, the platforms, subweapons caught in it, and YOU.

Finally, like most bosses, Viy's attacks change a bit after it takes some amount of damage.

You'll quickly see that Viy can chain its attacks. A big laser might be followed by a big laser or an eye extension.

The big laser will tilt to one side of the screen after it fires, obliterating more of the platforms on that side of the chamber.

The eyestalk will fire an additional laser straight up just as it finishes retracting into its socket.

You can hit Viy's tentacles to retract them. One swipe with the katana or axe will do it. They stay retracted for a little while, then re-extend. You have to hit all of them once to start the fight after Viy appears.

Viy's little pink guys are vulnerable to your weapons. They seem to be there mostly to absorb your shots, though, as killing them doesn't hurt Viy and keeps his weak point from being exposed.

Having said that, Viy's main weak point is the top of its eye. The eyelid has to be fully open, or else you can't hurt it.

Don't do anything that will make Lemeza touch Viy. If you get knocked around down there, it's easy to lose a lot of health quickly. When in doubt, play conservatively. As long as you don't touch Viy or either of its lasers, you can last a surprisingly long time; its other attacks do very low damage, so the main danger is getting knocked to the bottom of the screen.

Subweapons that move downwards can damage Viy whenever the eyelid is fully open. Try the Earth Spear, the Caltrops, and the Rolling Shuriken. If you can get the timing and the distance right, caltrops are surprisingly effective. The Earth Spear is your go-to for this battle, even though it forces you to jump over Viy. Try jumping over the eye and shooting spears just after it fires a laser at you.

Remember that subweapons are destroyed by the big laser.

Your main weapons can hurt Viy, too, but the only time you're likely to get a good shot is when the eye is fully extended, which is also when you are most at risk of being hit by the fireballs. Try the Katana. If one of the long platforms is intact next to Viy's eye when it is extended, you can pummel it with main weapon shots from the edge of the platform. If you play conservatively in the beginning, when you get to the latter part of the fight, there will be more opportunities to pummel the eye. This is because the eye will extend repeatedly more often, allowing for more intact platforms and opportunities to get close.

You can take out a majority of Viy's health at the very beginning of the fight with this combo. Exploit the period after the tentacles first retract and Viy shows off its eye stalk. It is easy to hit at this time because the platforms are still intact.

Viy will also go down with a full round of ammo (6 shots) from the Pistol.

Viy can be semi-safely damaged by jumping straight at the fully extended eye and attacking it. The (minimal) damage from the eye will knock Lemeza backward onto a platform, if the original jump starts high enough.

Viy is the "king of the gnomes" from the short horror story / fairy tale of the same name by Nikolai Gogol. In the story, too, Viy has enormous drooping eyelids which must be raised by other demons. -Wikipedia